Assignment
Evaluate the arguments of the following articles :
? "The Internet: Is It Changing the Way we Think?"
? "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"
? You Are Not A Gadget (excerpts to be assigned)
? "A World without Work"
? "Choose at Your Own Risk"
Is this essay you will write an approximately 1500 word essay (about 4 pages, not including works cited) in which you develop a topic based on at least three these readings and the issues they raise about technology, including a central issue or "problem" that you define in your essay, and then take a stance.
Where do you find agreement, disagreement, or both in these articles? How can you bring these articles into "conversation" with each other so your reader first sees the common ground of the issue along with differences in point of view? Do you feel one or the other is "stronger" or "weaker"? If so, how and why?
What are your reasons? Can you explain them to your reader? What parts of the text interest you the most? Can you examine or discuss what you feel is most important or relevant to your concerns? Can you help your reader understand what you see as some of the strengths and weaknesses in these articles' arguments by bringing disagreement to light (both yours and the articles' to each other)?
Think about your own experiences using the Internet and reading. Where can you enter "the conversation" with the sources and add experience and a point of view?
This term, for example, you've had several long articles to read and annotate for this class. How has that experience of working at length with written material differed from ways of reading and interacting with texts on the ‘net? How and where, in the above articles, do you find moments where your experience meets up with some of what the author's discuss, claim, or conclude from their research?
Process, Expectations, and Reminders
For this assignment you are to turn in three drafts: Invention_1.0, Arrangement_2.0, and Style 3.0 (due dates below). At our second conference you will receive comments on 2.0 and revise your essay for a final assignment grade as well as provide input to me on your grade. My expectation is that each draft will differ significantly, and reflect thorough revision (not "fixing").
You will produce a number of other shorter documents during class and as homework to help you develop your essay. These shorter works include outlining, summarizing, and other activities. These will go into Portfolio 2 and be reviewed at your conference.
Start with invention
It's important to remember that the invention process-figuring out your ideas and getting them on paper-does not end when you begin the arrangement draft. It's a process that cannot be rushed. Also, there can be multiple invention and multiple arrangement drafts (notice how I'm using the word "multiple" twice, for emphasis).
The challenge of attempting to organize your ideas and address the "needs of the reader" in developing your arrangement draft, usually brings to light the need for more invention: new ideas and material, a return to the sources and more careful reading and rethinking about the issue and your point of view.
Similarly, your Style draft should send you back to your sources and to the invention and arrangement steps, before integrating the genre and stylistic conventions of an academic essay.
Usually, in rereading an invention draft (or even the first attempt at an arrangement or style draft) you will likely discover some "obsolete" parts-sections you need to delete, rewrite, move, or some combination of all three. Being open to continuous discovery and revision is what the word "re-vision" actually means (seeing again and taking in action by making changes).
Focusing to "get it done" is an old way of thinking when you're in high school and may not be personally invested in your work. Shed that shallow attitude by practicing the college writing process!
Annotations are everything!
The articles you use for this assignment must to be thoroughly annotated using the "Reading to Write" handout and saved to your GD folder.
Annotation should be done, using Adobe Reader, directly into the PDF of the article (tutorial on Moodle). You should have substantial comment bubbles and spare underlying to show where you're commenting in the text. I will review your annotations during our second conference and your grade for this part of the assignment will be determined mainly by your thoroughness, quantity, and quality of the annotations. At this point, we are not simply identify claims and evidence, but pushing much deeper into the texts.
Words of warning
I expect you to produce at least two completely different drafts coming into your conference. I will use the Word Compare Docs tool to determine the differences in your drafts (try this yourself to check your own revision work and see how much you've made). This expectation, however, may be a problem for you because you may fall back into the habits or "high school mindset" of "getting it done," and hence not fully engage the college writing process that we've learned about and practiced this term.
Here's some ways to apply "best practices" for college writing and be successful with this assignment:
? Start immediately and work on your writing every day, without fail (even if briefly). "Bookmark" your work (write yourself a note) before you take a break so you are clear where you have left off.
? Reread the materials we've read on invention and revision (in GD). Apply your understanding as you write.
? Spend more time than you believe necessary on annotating the articles so you have as much "raw material" to draw upon, especially paraphrase.
? Paraphrase the important ideas from your sources, especially the important claims and reasoning.
? Plan to generate 3 distinctly different drafts (two of them "official"-invention and arrangement): 1) brainstorming / prewriting, 2) invention, and 3) arrangement. After your conference you will revise for the Style draft. Allow yourself to do multiple drafts of each.
? Don't fuss over the prewriting draft too much; allow is to reflect your attempt at organizing your brainstorm draft for yourself, as the reader. Don't confuse it with the invention or arrangement draft.
? Don't cut/copy/paste your way to the arrangement draft. Rewrite your paper from the ground up, with a clean screen, thinking about its structure from topic>issue>response to issue. Print out your previous draft and keep it to your side, and use a pencil or pen to make notes on it; but, work with a "clean screen" for each subsequent draft.
? Look for way to signal "progression" to your reader from the topic>issue>to responses (yours and your sources).
? Use your sources strategically in your arrangement draft.
Don't copy and paste quotation into your paper; write it out yourself and then check it. Remember: college writers use much more paraphrase than quotation. If it helps you to use direct quotation in your invention draft, then do so; but, in your arrangement draft, rely more on indirect quotation and in condensing down the source so that your reader can hear both the content-voice of the source (you're paraphrasing) and your own voice (see Hacker 120 for this pattern).
? Swap "hats" from writer to reader to "test" how your sentences and paragraphs are "signaling" to the reader where you're going next.
? Use the "compare texts" feature of Microsoft Word to see where and how your drafts differ. I use this tool to check how thoroughly my students have revised their work.
If you set out to produce each draft without aiming towards a "final" draft, you will come much closer to accomplishing the goals of this assignment. If you are having difficulty revising your work for a reader, then get feedback before you turn in your arrangement draft. It is your responsibility to ensure that you're not turning into two similar drafts.
The excuse, "I couldn't really find a lot of ways to change my paper..." will lead to a low grade on Portfolio 3. So, you want to follow the "best practices" and get your invention draft done, and begin to work on arrangement while you have enough time to discover problems and to address them, including time to get feedback from me. You won't want to wait until the end of week 9 to ask.
Format
All papers should strictly follow MLA guidelines as described in your Hacker texts.
All papers need "elements" at top: Topic key words, Topic Phrase showing "linkage," Guiding Question, and Thesis (copied and pasted from your essay-and a single sentence in length).